


Take the Shot

by fudgeroach



Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Study, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, cw's at the start of each chapter, im an unstoppable clemerva machine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 10:47:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28350108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fudgeroach/pseuds/fudgeroach
Summary: Clementine could claim she wasn't thinking straight when she fired the arrow that saved Minerva's life, but that wouldn't be the whole truth.Some might say saving the life of someone who'd tried to kill you was stupid, and maybe they were right.Honestly, Clem was just tired of watching people die tonight.---AU where Clem saves Minnie's life and deals with the consiquences thereafter.
Relationships: AJ | Alvin Jr. & Clementine (Walking Dead), Clementine & Louis (Walking Dead: Done Running), Clementine & Violet (Walking Dead: Done Running), Clementine/Minerva (Walking Dead: Done Running), Minerva & Tenn (Walking Dead)
Comments: 22
Kudos: 33





	Take the Shot

**Author's Note:**

> now u may be thinking "hey ash wtf are u doing starting 2 multichap fics in 1 week, ur literally dumb" and to that i would say you are correct  
> HOWEVER i am very excited abt this idea and im eager to write and share it with you guys  
> this ones only gonna be a short n sweet fic (hopefully) and while i dont have the next chapter written like i do my other clemerva fic ("suffer the children" go check it out if u like modern aus n angst ;] ) im planning the chapters out in advance which i almost NEVER do  
> so hopefully i can pull my finger out and get this done!!
> 
> AND i almost forgot something v important: thank you Very much to baph for reading this over and helping me edit it ;w;
> 
> i will say, this fics also gonna have some p heavy stuff in it so thats a lil warning in advance
> 
> cw for this chapter: characters alluding to suicidal thoughts, and thats about it?? its not outright mentioned but its p heavily implied
> 
> enjoy the fic!!

If there’s one thing the end of the world has taught her, it’s to never hesitate.

When you hesitate, people die.

In her nightmares she hesitates and Omid gets shot in the gut by a twitchy thief in a grimy bathroom, Sarita gets devoured by walkers before her eyes while Kenny screams at her to do something, Luke falls into a frozen lake and she can see him clawing and banging at the ice beneath her feet.

When Clementine hesitates, people die.

Which is why it’s become so easy for her to pull the trigger on suspicious strangers in the woods or slam her knife into rotten temples or, more recently, send an arrow flying into her target with deadly accuracy. Act first, ask later, and you can’t ask if you have a bullet in your brain or a walker ripping into your neck.

So it comes as a great shock when Clementine finds herself rooted to the floor like a dead tree watching Minerva fire round after round into the never ending hoard while a walker stumbles towards her exposed back.

Distantly, she can hear her name being called by the remainder of her friends towards the cart, can feel AJ clawing at her leg to get down but all she can really do is stand there and stare, her last arrow frozen midway from her back to the bow.

It would be so incredibly easy to just let the walker take a bite out of the girl who’d been causing their group so many problems. The same girl who’d tricked her into a cell under the guise of helping them escape before cold clocking her with the butt of her crossbow. Her eye’s trailed to the bloody mark on Minerva’s arm. She’d been bitten, too. She was already dead.

Clem had no reason to save this girl, not really.

As cliché as it was, time really felt like it had slowed down to a crawl at that moment. Even from this distance, she could see Minerva’s eyes blazing with fury and adrenalin as she fired into the herd. Even when they first met in that clearing in the woods, Clementine had been shaken by just how blue they were and even more so when they were staring directly into her own as a hunting knife got closer and closer to her heart, the other girl’s weight pressing her heavily into the floor of the ship.

It didn’t make sense to let her live, to save her life, to even _try_.

But her stomach felt sick at the thought of having to watch someone else die tonight. The sound of James’ blood gurgling in his chest was still burnt into her brain.

So, with AJ clinging to her leg in an attempt to pull her back to cover, Clementine nocked her last arrow and drew the bow taught. She took a breath, held it, and fired with her exhale.

Minerva still hadn’t noticed the walker, not until Clem’s arrow shot past her face alarmingly close and the thing finally dropped dead for good behind her.

Between walkers, Clem could see Minnie stare at the thing a moment and the arrow stuck out of it’s eye socket before turning around and focusing in on her. Clementine stared back and realised she couldn’t quite understand the emotion she saw in those eyes, but her own emotions were a mystery right now so it was a safe bet that her own expression looked curiously blank too.

AJ had stopped pulling at her leg and she couldn’t hear Willy calling for her to get to the cart anymore, but however they felt about her sudden rescue attempt wasn’t really her main concern just then. Another walker was stumbling towards Minnie and Clementine growled in frustration, eyebrows furrowing. She didn’t just kill one walker to have another finish the job.

“ _Get the fuck over here, now!_ ” She yelled, drawing the attention of a few nearby walkers.

Minnie blinked vacantly before glancing over her shoulder and seeing the approaching walker. However she felt about having her life saved by the person she’d tried to kill minutes ago didn’t stop her from making a mad dash for the boxes AJ and her were hiding behind, stooping low and picking up her fallen axe as she went. As she approached, Clem saw her pull something out of her pocket and it was only when Minnie brought the thing to her mouth and yanked the pin out with her teeth did she realise it was a grenade.

Her own eyes widened and she immediately shielded AJ’s body with her own, throwing them both to the ground. She squeezed her eyes shut as fear knotted her gut, but after a brief moment of silence amidst the moaning of the undead, a ground shaking explosion sounded off across the clearing and not right next to her head like she thought was about to happen. A body thudded next to her and Clem cracked an eye open to see Minnie huddled next to a crate with her ears covered and glare fiercely aimed at the ground.

Her ears still ringing, Clem uncurled herself from AJ and clambered to her knees to see that Minnie had launched the grenade at where walkers had been congregating. A good portion of them were now blown to bits, their bodies strewn about the clearing, while the ones that remained were now shambling towards where the loud noise had come from.

Head snapping towards the sound of a terrified horse whinnying, Clem watched in dismay as the animal shot off into the night with their only means of escape attached to it’s back. Her friends stared at her from within the cage, expressions ranging from confusion to fear to outright anger.

“Shit,” Clem breathed, suddenly overwhelmed with where her decisions had brought the night.

AJ stood jerkily and refused to look at her and she tried to ignore how much that made her stomach churn. Minnie stayed on the ground, still glaring at nothing.

With a huff, Clem rose but kept her stance low and grabbed the taller girl’s arm to drag her up, “Come on, we have to get out of here.”

Minnie shook her off sharply and turned that icy glare on her, “ _Where?_ ”

Eyeing the corpses starting to drag themselves from the river, Clem growled and scanned the clearing for an opening they could take. The severity of what she’d done by saving Minnie weighed heavily in the back of her mind, AJ’s silence and the others’ shocked faces making it that much worse. She didn’t have time to regret it, all she could do what stop them all from dying until she did.

“Clem! AJ!”

Her head snapped towards the distant voice and saw Tenn waving at them from behind a rocky outcropping. AJ must have looked too because she heard his relieved cry of, “Tenn!”

At her brother’s name, Minnie seemed to snap to life, her whole body going rigid and jerkily throwing herself up from behind the crate she was sitting against. Clem couldn’t see her face, but she could see Tenn’s and how it morphed into an expression of pure awe.

“ _Tenn_ …” Minnie whispered and suddenly took off running towards him, completely ignoring the walkers closing in on her path and merely kicking or shoulder barging them out of the way in her hurry. AJ looked at her then and took off running after Clem gave him a nod of approval. He ran after Minnie, using the gaps she’d left in her wake to dodge the undead, which left Clem to make her own way over.

Clem reached for her knife before remembering it wasn’t there and cursed.

Her own brief sprint to the other’s was punctuated by having to kick the knees out from under a few walkers and when she made it to the rocks and vaulted over them, another ambushed her from the side as she landed and pushed her against the boulder before she managed to kick its knee and the thing fell like a sack of cement.

Tenn brought down a knife on its head and she barely had time to wonder where he’d managed to find one before another walker gurgled from behind her and she shot forward to grab it and pull it free of the corpse.

They all began running without a word and Clem noticed Tenn clutching his sister’s hand.

Clem stared at the bite on Minnie’s arm and hoped to God she’d made the right choice.

* * *

Their group slowed as the beach tapered off into water, a high rock face blocking their way back into the woods. Clementine’s eyes darted around and spotted an opening just as another swarm of walkers rounded the corner they’d just come from.

“Clem, monsters, we need to move.” It was the first thing AJ had said to her since shooting that walker which made her feel moderately better that he wasn’t completely ignoring her.

She nodded and pointed at the gap in the rocks, “There, we’ll have to squeeze through.”

“But,” Tenn added, shuffling closer to Minnie’s stoic form, “we don’t know where it goes.”

“Well, we _do_ know there’s walkers in the other direction,” She tried not to let her voice betray her frustration.

Minnie raised her hand holding Tenn’s and leant her axe against her leg, using her now free hand to close around his reassuringly, her voice softer than Clementine had ever heard it, “It’s okay, Tenn, I’m right behind you.”

He seemed more relaxed at that but Clem couldn’t take her eyes off the slowly nearing forms of the walkers and was about to tell them to please hurry up before AJ did it for her.

“Move it, dummys!” He snapped and sprinted towards the cave opening.

The three of them stared at where he’d ran a moment before Clem took initiative and starting backing up to the rocks, her eyes still fixed on the walkers in case any of them decided to make a run at them.

“Go, get inside,” she said, voice steady despite her alarmingly fast heart rate.

In her periphery, she saw Minnie hustle towards the gap and lead Tenn through first before she paused and turned to face Clementine, waiting for her to join them. Clementine met her eyes then and felt distinctly like a rabbit getting stared down by a wolf.

It suddenly occurred to her that Minerva could kill her right then. Of course, she already knew that in general, but now she could make it look like an accident. She could push Clem into the hoard of walkers and claim she’d gone to kill one that had split off from the herd and gotten overwhelmed and the longer Clementine stared at her, the more that fear gripped her. It looked like Minnie realised the same thing because her eyes were darting from their pursuers to her.

They both glared at each other, moments ticking on, before Minnie seemed to come to a conclusion and her face contorted into one of agonised acceptance.

“Hurry the fuck up,” She snarled, whatever softness she’d had in her voice for Tenn gone completely, and retreated into the cave.

Clementine released the breath she’d been holding and took off after her, sliding in between the rocks and feeling damp air swirl around her face as she got closer to the others.

Inside the cave was dank, dark, and stunk of something earthy and green. Annoyingly, there was a fast moving river stopping them from venturing further inside and already she was glancing around their meagre resources to find a way across.

“God, it’s so dark in here,” she muttered, mainly to herself but heard a grunt of agreement from Minnie.

“This sucks,” AJ grumbled, turning to face her, “This really fucking sucks.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll figure something out.”

 _Another survival scavenger hunt, just what I fucking need right now._

She could hear the walkers stumbling closer as she searched for whatever the cave could offer them, managing to loot an already dead walker for it’s surprisingly dry shirt to act as fuel for her makeshift torch.

Her search was interspersed with grunts and screams of exertion as Minnie threw her axe into walker heads as they managed to cram themselves through the gap.

Her torch lit the area enough for her to spot a dead tree lodged near the waterfall and she managed to kick it into the heavy stream of water to act as an unstable bridge before the hoard became too much.

“Okay! Everyone, across, quickly!”

As she said it, Clem ran to Minnie’s side and sunk her knife into a walkers skull, kicking it towards the opening in an attempt to make it harder for the undead to get inside. The two of them backed away from the opening, Clem glancing over her shoulder quickly to see that both the boys had made it across.

“Okay, Minerva, get across,” she said, stabbing another walker under its chin. When Minnie made no move to leave, Clem groaned in annoyance and rammed her shoulder into the other girl, nudging her towards the log, “Go, for fuck’s sake!”

“Fuck you!” Minnie snarled, decimating another walker with her axe and regaining her footing.

“ _Minnie!_ ”

Tenn’s voice echoed over to them and, just as she thought would happen, Minnie faltered in her rampage and actually stepped back from the hoard.

It was clear she’d do anything for her baby brother and it was a sentiment Clementine could relate to wholeheartedly. Having AJ with her, simply just to bring her back to reality, had saved her from too many dangerous situations to be comfortable.

She heard Minnie’s footsteps retreat and waited a few more moments, taking a few cautionary steps back and beating another walker in the head with her makeshift torch, before turning on her heel and beginning the wobbly journey across the log.

It jostled with the water and there was a horrifying moment where she thought she’d go flying into the river when a walker tried to join her and tipped the whole tree up.

She got close enough to the other side to jump eventually and turned to watch the log capsize and go flying down the river, walker in tow.

For another few moments, they were safe, and Clem let herself catch the breath she’d lost before standing up straight and leading them further into the cave.

The walk was monotonous, every cave wall being that same dull grey wet with humidity. She was grateful, actually. Gave her time to think about what the fuck she was going to do.

Minnie was bitten and Tenn was here.

Having a bite victim was complicated enough, never mind having said bite victim’s young, sheltered brother there with them. Not even to mention the fact this was the first time Tenn had even seen Minnie and vice versa for over a year.

She knew what had to be done and she knew it was going to suck for everyone involved and AJ still wasn’t talking to her which only made everything worse.

Eventually, the claustrophobic walls opened into another cave, smaller than the previous but still fairly spacious. Several other passageways led off into darkness and it only took a moment of sleuthing before she felt a cool breeze flow from one of them; the one that led to the way out.

“It’s this way,” she said flatly but didn’t move.

They didn’t know what waited outside the cave, but the longer they went with Minnie infected, the more likely they all were to be dead regardless of what lay before them. She had to make an executive decision, and it wasn’t one she was particular stoked about but it had to be done.

She heard the others approach her back and the wave of anxiety that passed through them at her silence. With an exhale, Clementine turned and looked at Minnie.

“Give me your axe.”

Minnie’s face froze, “…why?”

The glance Clem made between her face and the bloody wound ripping through Minnie’s parka was slow and deliberate, “You know why.”

She could feel both AJ and Tenn’s eyes on them.

Without a word, Minnie lifted the axe and held it out to her, face devoid of much except a slight twitch of her lip.

Clementine grabbed the weapon, walked past them, and scrubbed at the blade with the palm of her hand.

“Why- What? What’s going on?” Tenn asked, voice cracking from nerves.

“She’s bit,” she said, voice flat and emotionless as she tried to wipe the crusted blood off Minnie’s axe.

“What? She’s _bit_!?” Tenn’s voice cried from behind her, “You’re bit?”

Clem turned, axe now mostly free of contaminated blood, and saw Tenn staring at his older sister with a pained, horrified expression. He had taken a step away from her and the motion sent a flash of agony across her face before she turned to glare straight at Clem, deliberately not answering his question. Clem stared back. They both knew full well what had to happen if she wanted to live, but that didn’t stop either of them daring the other to look away first.

“Yes,” Clem said, taking a purposeful step forward, “she is.”

Minnie still didn’t speak.

“Look, glare at me all you fucking want, you can either live or die, but it you want to live we have to cut it off.”

Minnie spoke then, starting with a scoff, “I’d be fucking useless with one arm.”

“More useful than if you were _dead_.”

“Maybe I should be, then,” Minnie snarled, closing the short distance between them with heavy footsteps and standing toe-to-toe with her, noses practically touching as she continued in a furious whisper, “I’d rather be _dead_ than have the likes of _you_ chop my fucking arm off and take me back to be your little bitch at that shithole school.”

Clementine had to give herself credit for not backing away from her when she’d gotten closer. Minerva cut an intimidating figure being a full head taller than her, eyes cold and shoulders squared under that grimy parka.

Instead, she held her ground and glared right back. Her hands tightened on the axe handle.

She was surprised by how steady her voice was when she spoke, “I don’t know what you think this is or what kind of person you think I am, but you can shove it all up your ass and get over it, you-”

“Oh, I know _exactly_ the kind of person you are, Clementine. You’re the kind of person who just walks into places she doesn’t fucking belong and ruins people’s lives,” Minnie’s voice was still low and vicious, “If you hadn’t shown up, everybody would still be alive. We would have taken them to some place better and we all would have been together again, but you fucking _ruined_ it.”

Clem had to stop the peel hysterical laughter escaping her at that, “Some place _better_? You mean a goddamn _war zone_? Back to that little cult you called home for the past year that literally turns kids into canon fodder for some bullshit war? You’re out of your mind.”

“At least I would have died for something worth dying for! Somewhere safe and warm with food and clean water, not some abandoned building in the middle of nowhere where I spent the worst years of my _life_!”

“Just because _you_ decided to give up doesn’t mean you had to drag everyone else down with you,” Clementine snarled, feeling her shoulders tense the longer this futile battle went on. Whatever bullshit Delta had fed her, she’d eaten it up with a spoon, “Just because _you_ wanted to die for these fuckers doesn’t mean everyone else had to.”

“You should have left me,” Minnie whispered flatly, completely throwing off Clementine’s train of thought. The fight sounded gone from her voice, replaced with a worryingly empty tone, “You should have left me out there. I shouldn’t be here.”

Clementine blinked and felt a cold settle in her gut.

There was more going on in Minerva’s head than she felt capable of understanding and the implications of what she’d said were plain to see.

Neither of them moved for what felt like hours, not until Minnie blinked and looked down. Clem followed her eyes and saw Tenn’s armed wrapped around her waist, his face pushed firmly into her back. He didn’t say anything, but in the sudden stillness of the cave, they could all hear his shaky breaths and see his shoulders jump with silent cries.

Minnie’s face dropped then. Clementine could see her blink rapidly and her mouth soften from a hard snarl into a wobbly pout. She stumbled back from their staring contest and gently rested her blood crusted hands atop her brother’s.

Looking away, suddenly feeling like she was seeing something she shouldn’t, Clementine’s eyes slid to the floor as she also backed away. Her gaze travelled along the craggy floor and found AJ’s scuffed sneakers against the far wall, the young boy having moved there sometime during the heated conversation. He had an expression on his face she’d seen before; eyebrows drawn into a frown and lips in a frustrated pout while his arms were crossed firmly over his chest. He was confused and angry and she could feel an argument brewing on the horizon. She sighed and glanced over to see Minnie and Tenn had walked off to have a rather intense looking conversation on the other side of the cave, so she figured now was the time to probably get this particular conversation out of the way.

He didn’t look at her as she approached and Clem knelt down to his level, using the axe to steady her descent.

“Hey, kiddo,” she said softly and winced a tired smile that he didn’t see.

He remained quiet but his expression scrunched more, clearly thinking hard about what he wanted to say to her.

Minnie and Tenn’s soft voices travelled across the short distance, emphasising just how silent he was being and Clem sighed through her nose.

“Look,” she started again, sounding very much like she was explaining herself to a grown adult and not her 5 year old companion, “I know you’re angry and confused about what happened, and I-”

“Why did you let her come with us?” He suddenly cut her off, voice loud enough to briefly make the other two stagger in their conversation. Clem blinked and shook her head as if to say she had no idea either. Which, to be fair, she didn’t.

“AJ, I don’t… I know, okay? She’s done horrible things, but-”

“She hurt her friends. _Our_ friends! You let her come with us and she tried to kill you! You let her live, like you told me to let Lilly live, and now she’s gonna kill you like Lilly killed James!” His hands were balled into fists and he was practically yelling now, his expression twisting into confused fury.

Despite all this, all she could do was feel a well of sadness open inside her.

Even before tonight, he’d been confused and questioning her. And maybe he had every right to. Everything she’d decided to do these past few days felt like the exact wrong decision to make, another choice in her life she couldn’t take back that had more negative consequences than positive. So she just looked at him, feeling her eyes sting with tears, feeling like she’d failed him as a guardian and not for the first time.

Her silence only spurred him on, “I just want to protect you, Clem.”

And didn’t that just make it harder to keep herself together?

“Oh, AJ, buddy-”

“I want to protect you! From the monsters and people who want to hurt us, but you just keep- you keep making dumb decisions!”

If he wasn’t so angry she would have laughed, honestly. He was right, of course, but hearing him say it in such a childish way almost made her giggle. He was still waiting for something from her, something to explain what was going through her mind when she fired that arrow, but she was still trying to figure that one out herself in all honesty. She looked over to find Minnie and Tenn locked in bone crushing hug and felt her stomach twinge, the feeling of seeing something she shouldn’t be privy to rearing it’s head again. But helped make something click into place, at least.

Clementine turned to face AJ and rested a gentle hand on his shoulder, making sure he was looking at her when she said this, “AJ, what if… what if I got taken one day? And you thought I was dead?”

His eyes seemed to widen at that, taking her literally, “You wouldn’t be taken, I wouldn’t let anyone take you without me.”

She shook her head, “Let’s say I was, okay? I got taken and you think I’m dead but then, a whole year later, you find out I’m still alive.”

He paused at that and slowly looked over to Minnie and Tenn. She continued.

“But I wasn’t the person you remembered. I was… dangerous, or I wanted to hurt your friends. Would you want me dead?”

His head snapped back to her then and she looked into his dark eyes, searching them for understanding.

“Would you think I was a different person? That you couldn’t get me back to who I was?”

He looked away from her and very quietly, almost too quiet for her to hear, whispered, “No.”

She released a breath and placed her other hand on his shoulder, dragging them both down to hold his hands in hers and give them a squeeze, “Maybe I was wrong about Lilly. And maybe I’m wrong about this. But AJ, just because we can’t always save everyone doesn’t mean we can’t _try_.”

She remembered Lilly’s story, ‘The Parable of the Twins’, and how Minnie’s confession to the murder of her own twin sister had nearly bowled her over with it’s weight. But she also remembered the distant look on Minnie’s face before it came up, like she was being transported back to that moment, like she was reliving a nightmare only she could see.

It was a look of guilt. Heart wrenching, gut churning, soul crushing guilt.

Whatever had happened when Minnie killed her sister, Clementine doubted she’d relished in it. In fact, she imagined it was a memory that would haunt the girl until her dying breath.

Clem continued, “Minnie is... she’s hurt. And confused and scared, even if she doesn’t look it. And maybe we can’t make her who she used to be, but we can help her get better.”

AJ stared her down and she hoped she’d convinced him.

Mostly, she hoped she’d convinced herself.

AJ breathed deeply and nodded his head.

Releasing a sigh of her own she smiled faintly and pulled him into a hug, “It’s gonna be okay, goofball.”

She held him a moment longer before leaning back and starting to stand up. As she turned to head back towards Minnie, she felt his small hand tug on her jacket and turned once more to find him avoiding her eyes.

“Clem, I… when we get home, I need to talk to you about something else.” By the end of his sentence he was looking at her, face morphed into that no-nonsense look he’d started to pick up from her and she felt her heart swell.

“Of course, buddy, you can talk to me about anything.”

He nodded once in acceptance and released her coat.

Clementine turned again only to find Minnie trudging closer, head held high and expression stony again. She stared Clem down and nodded, “Okay. Do it.”

Clementine pursed her lips and brandished the axe, “Okay. We need to set some things up first.”

The menial tasks felt like they went too quick after that; AJ sparked up a small fire using her knife and the small piece of flint she’d found and rested the blade in the flames, Minnie laid down on the hard floor with her bitten arm stretched out far as possible and her coat removed, and Clementine undid her belt to act as a tourniquet.

Tenn was holding his sister’s free hand in a vice and refused to look away from her face.

Everything was ready and as Clementine widened her stance and corrected her aim on the infected limb, her eyes drifted to Minnie’s and found she was being stared at.

Whatever anxiety she’d had about this whole ordeal evaporated at the steely resolve in those eyes and for a brief moment, she thought she felt a spark of something akin to understanding flicker between them.

Minnie licked her lips, “Don’t miss.”

Clem pulled her arms back and shook her head, “I won’t.”

**Author's Note:**

> ayyy thank u for reading!!  
> please leave a kudos if u liked, or maybe even a cheeky comment it ur feelin Extra generous this fine day :]


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